What's the history of using the letter "f" in place of the letter "s" in old books?

Question

What was the purpose? When did it begin/end? I can't find anything online about it.

Answer 1

Between the 300s and 800s A.D. in European handwriting, most letters spawned newer shapes for easier penmanship. Although no one knew it at the time, some of these shapes would later supply the models for early printers' lowercase type. S developed two handwritten shapes: the "short" s, basically our modern lowercase letter, and the "long" s, shaped rather like an f. Long s, easy to write, was by custom used at the start or middle of a word, never at the end.

With the spread of printing in the second half of the 1400s, the long s became one of the printer's lowercase letters (along with the short s). This f-like s continued to appear in English-language print and handwriting right through the 1700s, before falling out of vogue. It still is used occasionally in German print, where certain medieval typefaces remain popular.

Answer 2

I think the symbol you're referring to was a bit like an f, but without the bar in the middle. More like a stretched out S, basically. If I remember correctly, I was told that they would print out a normal s when it was at the beginning of a word, for example "social". Basically, a single S. The other symbol was used for words that we now write with a double S, for example "class".

Answer 3

I once read, which does not make it true, that in the early days of printing presses, the type letters were time consuming to make and thus somewhat expensive. And, since 's' is a common letter, there were not always enough 's' for an entire page, so they substituted other letters.

And, it wasn't only 's'.

I don't know if that is true, but I do declare, it oughta' be true. Hee, hee.

Answer 4

In the German Blackletter related fonts, if the letter 'S' appears inside a word, it is vertically elongated and slightly modified to look more like the 'f'.

It is one of many variants used in this kind of font, like the combined AE, the 'half R', etc.

Answer 5

I was actually going to answer this question simply, but so enjoyed reading the other answers, I decided mine was inadequate! I just wasn't sure how to tell everybody else thanks for their answers. I really learned a lot! (I know this seems like a cheesy thing to do, but I'm so tired of reading questions like "Does he like me?" And "Anybody Bored?" I was just happy to learn something from some curious and intelligent people.)

Thanks for asking a good question!!!

Answer 6

It is called a "long S", and was used into the 19th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

Answer 7

nice question huh!!!!!... you a great critict of old books? would you mind if we ask the ENGLAND FOLKS? they are the soul users of such this one.....when it came to languages.........